The Latitudinal Motion of Sunspots and Solar Meridional Circulations.
Abstract
There are many theories of the large-scale circulation of the sun. Fundamental to many of these is a meridional cell which transports momentum between the pole and equator. Observational verification has devolved most often upon the analysis of the latitudinal drifts of sunspots. A comprehensive analysis of sunspot drifts shows some peculiar results. Two conclusions can be drawn from these results. First, sunspot data cannot be used to verify the existence of a mean meridional circulation on the sun. Second, the residual meridional drifts (averaged over time and longitude) are very much smaller than their day-to-day counterparts, lending support to the idea that the latter are the more fundamental to the large-scale solar circulation. (Author)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Aug 21, 1972
- Accession Number
- AD0751268
Entities
People
- Fred Ward
Organizations
- Air Force Cambridge Research Laboratories